Originally posted by redsoxnationFOX still has absolutely no idea how to cover baseball. When the feed to Red Sox markets has the Red Sox relegated to the tiny box for an entire half inning, they prove their cluelessness.

Same thing happened in the Yankee markets too. Then when the Chicago-Cleveland game got close in the late innings, we don't see jack, but we do get Buck providing the once a minute update. Also Fox missed the first pitch of an inning about 4 different times. And don't forget the one when Johnson started and inning and had a big ol' Pepsid banner blocking half the screen. Fox is terrible.

Originally posted by It's FalseYou mean after the Yankees' horrible start, the Red Sox's inconsistancy, the Indians' hot streak, the White Sox's near-collapse and everything that's happened in between, it's just the status quo all over again with the Yankees atop the AL East and the Red Sox seizing the wild card?

Not yet. If the Red Sox lose today and Cleveland wins, then there is a one game playoff tomorrow between them at Fenway.

Originally posted by It's FalseGod, I hate baseball sometimes.

(edited by It's False on 1.10.05 1402)

Don't blame baseball. The Indians had their chances and couldn't win. Like you said before, Cleveland has no one to blame but themselves if they don't take advantage.

ChiSox up 3-0 in the third after Elarton gets pulled after pitching two innings plus two batters. Again I have to wonder why they didn't go with Lee. Right now it looks like that decision may cost them the playoffs.

EDIT: It's officially over with the Indians losing 3-1 and completing a horrible collapse. Today's loss was a moot point anyway with Boston crushing New York 10-1.

First, my condolences to the fans of the Cleveland Indians. I know how painful it can be to have your team come from way back to make it a close race, only to blow it at the wire. Still, you can take comfort in the fact that your team got to play a couple of meaningful October games (it's been a few years since my team has played meaningful September games) and helped to make for a riveting pennant race making for an exciting Sunday finale.

It should be mentioned that there is at least one person who doesn't think that this should be the end of the regular season. In a column titled Playoff Scheme Is Farce (nydailynews.com) Mike Lupica writes fifteen paragraphs to argue that the Yankees and Red Sox should be forced to play another game tomorrow to determine which team plays the Angels and which team plays the White Sox in the first round of the playoffs. A brief excerpt:

Originally posted by Mike LupicaThe season in the American League East should not have ended the way it did at Fenway Park yesterday....The season in baseball is too long and too valuable to be decided by football tiebreakers. This has been too dramatic a September between the Yankees and Red Sox and Indians to have a one-game lead stand up with still one game left to play. I don't care how long these rules have been in place. I don't want another person to explain to me that two-team ties in baseball are only determined on the field if the loser doesn't make the playoffs, and blah blah blah....This whole thing should have been played out today on the field.

All September we have talked about the beauty of the wild card and the drama it created. But the real beauty, in Boston and New York, was that the wild card also created the possibility that the Yankees and Red Sox could be playing knockout baseball in the AL East, loser goes home.

Now the Yankees and Red Sox might tie in the East, and the Yankees are in because they won the season series....It is wrong and if these are the rules, somebody ought to change them when the season is over.

Quite frankly, this strikes me as one of the dumbest sports columns I have read in a long time, dumb even by Mike Lupica standards. Now, if he was railing against baseball having a wild card then I could at least respect his opinion; but he's not. I could also understand if Lupica, being Lupica, wasn't aware that if the Red Sox beat the Yankees today giving both teams identical records (which is what came to pass) that both teams will be playing in the post season. But that's not the case either. Mike Lupica is upset because the Yankees and the Red Sox will have finished the season with identical records, and will not be playing a one hundred sixty third game of the regular season to decide which team is the Division Champion and which team is the Wild Card.

Now, maybe I'm missing something important here, but for the life of me I can't imagine any baseball fan caring about a "playoff" game to determine how the teams will be seeded in the first round of the ALDS. Let me put the question to the Red Sox fans on this board, as their team is the only one with anything to gain from such a "playoff" against the Yankees: Is playing the Angels instead of the White Sox in the first round worth giving up the off day prior to the start of the post season? Would it be worth buying a ticket to see such a game? Especially considering there's a fifty percent chance that both teams would have to travel to New York to play it? Again, I may be missing something really important here, but I just don't see the point. In fact, IMHO the "playoff" game that Mr. Lupica is so adamant that MLB should force the Yankees and Red Sox to play would only be meaningful to people who had placed a pre-season bet on which team would win the AL East.

Originally posted by Downtown BookieFirst, my condolences to the fans of the Cleveland Indians. I know how painful it can be to have your team come from way back to make it a close race, only to blow it at the wire. Still, you can take comfort in the fact that your team got to play a couple of meaningful October games (it's been a few years since my team has played meaningful September games) and helped to make for a riveting pennant race making for an exciting Sunday finale.

It should be mentioned that there is at least one person who doesn't think that this should be the end of the regular season. In a column titled Playoff Scheme Is Farce (nydailynews.com) Mike Lupica writes fifteen paragraphs to argue that the Yankees and Red Sox should be forced to play another game tomorrow to determine which team plays the Angels and which team plays the White Sox in the first round of the playoffs. A brief excerpt:

Originally posted by Mike LupicaThe season in the American League East should not have ended the way it did at Fenway Park yesterday....The season in baseball is too long and too valuable to be decided by football tiebreakers. This has been too dramatic a September between the Yankees and Red Sox and Indians to have a one-game lead stand up with still one game left to play. I don't care how long these rules have been in place. I don't want another person to explain to me that two-team ties in baseball are only determined on the field if the loser doesn't make the playoffs, and blah blah blah....This whole thing should have been played out today on the field.

All September we have talked about the beauty of the wild card and the drama it created. But the real beauty, in Boston and New York, was that the wild card also created the possibility that the Yankees and Red Sox could be playing knockout baseball in the AL East, loser goes home.

Now the Yankees and Red Sox might tie in the East, and the Yankees are in because they won the season series....It is wrong and if these are the rules, somebody ought to change them when the season is over.

Quite frankly, this strikes me as one of the dumbest sports columns I have read in a long time, dumb even by Mike Lupica standards. Now, if he was railing against baseball having a wild card then I could at least respect his opinion; but he's not. I could also understand if Lupica, being Lupica, wasn't aware that if the Red Sox beat the Yankees today giving both teams identical records (which is what came to pass) that both teams will be playing in the post season. But that's not the case either. Mike Lupica is upset because the Yankees and the Red Sox will have finished the season with identical records, and will not be playing a one hundred sixty third game of the regular season to decide which team is the Division Champion and which team is the Wild Card.

Now, maybe I'm missing something important here, but for the life of me I can't imagine any baseball fan caring about a "playoff" game to determine how the teams will be seeded in the first round of the ALDS. Let me put the question to the Red Sox fans on this board, as their team is the only one with anything to gain from such a "playoff" against the Yankees: Is playing the Angels instead of the White Sox in the first round worth giving up the off day prior to the start of the post season? Would it be worth buying a ticket to see such a game? Especially considering there's a fifty percent chance that both teams would have to travel to New York to play it? Again, I may be missing something really important here, but I just don't see the point. In fact, IMHO the "playoff" game that Mr. Lupica is so adamant that MLB should force the Yankees and Red Sox to play would only be meaningful to people who had placed a pre-season bet on which team would win the AL East.

Getting in the playoffs is all that matters to me. Would it have upset me very slightly if the Yankees had home field in Round 1. Perhaps. But, why play a 1 game playoff that would be Jorge De Paula vs. Lenny Dinardo and force the winner of the game to then travel cross-country to play the Angels? Look at the line-ups both teams had on the field the last three innings today. It would be a joke. Now, would I watch it? Yes, but I watch spring training games.

Saturday did it in for me, although I had the general feeling develop thanks to the D-Rays. When our team can't generate one stinking run when it has the bases loaded and NOBODY OUT, I mean come on. They couldn't bunt, couldn't advance the runners when they did get on base, just flat out couldn't execute. It seems they just relied on the home run to get them through. Shame too, 'cause the pitching was downright brilliant for the most part.

I am keeping this in perspective, though. Visiting my daughter daily in the hospital does that for me. Of course, going through all of the above blown sports chances kinda numbs you to this as well.

At least I can get back to rooting against the Yankers.

(edit) - By the way, Congrats to the White Sox. They could have lay down, but they certainly turned it on when they had to. Plus, McCarthy pitches freakin insane.

Originally posted by NagThe Drive, The Fumble, The Shot, The Braves, The Blown Save, and now The Choke.

Don't forget The Flag-in-the-Eye, The Clock Management, and The Burning River. *ducks*

But hey, my best friend and former co-worker turned USAF recruiter in Houston is a HYUUUUGE Indians/Browns fan...and he laughed like hell at the Browns beating the Pack in Lambeau. (Especially when Steve "Don't Call Me Eric" Heiden's spike after his 2nd TD and subsequent piling-on damn near killed me on the sidelines.)

And yes, you'll be amazed at how far booing the Yankees can go to cleanse your soul.